Sunday, April 19, 2009

Pound for Pound Disappointment

Anderson Silva is supposed to be the best pound for pound fighter in the world. Whenever there are commercials to try and promote his fights the UFC claims that he is the best fighter out there. This can no longer be the case however as in his last two fights Silva has failed to put away both Patrick Cote and Thales Leites.

Many people who watch the fights try and stick up for Silva and say that he is just bored or that these guys aren't on his level. Well if they aren't on his level shouldn't he just smash them like he did to Chris Leben and James Irvin? Why do scrub fighters take him the distance while good fighters he pounds out in the first round? I don't know the answer but the fact that it is even a question is a real piss off.

When you see fighters like Georges St. Pierre and Fedor you see men who want to go out and dominate their opponents. They don't sit back and dance and then apologize after they put on a crappy fight. They go out and try their best to win fights and prove they are superior. Their goal is to win. They don't care if it is flashy or exciting they simply want to win. Silva on the other hand appears to have no desire to win. He seems content with dancing around the ring for 25 minutes and doing little to no damage.

Tonight should have been a great night as with his win Silva set the record scoring his ninth straight win inside the Octagon and setting the title defense streak at 5. Unfortunately the night was ruined by one of the most boring fights I have ever seen.

“The Spider” was taken the distance for the for the first time in his career since 2004, which clearly did not sit well with the fans sitting ringside or the people at the bar I watched the fights at. The 185-pound showdown turned out to be quite a snorefest that if you had gotten up to take a piss you wouldn't have missed anything. Seriously Silva danced for 15 minutes and Leites laid on his back.

Silva didn’t do much in the first two rounds against the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist, opting to keep his distance and stay out of harms way. But when he did attempt to engage, Leites did what most laymen and keyboard warriors would do and flopped to the canvas like a dead fish, looking to bait Silva into a ground match.

Silva refused to engage him on the ground and forced him to stand up roughly 15 times. There was one flash of action however as Silva had Leites on the ground and fed him a few shots causing a minor cut to open. He couldn’t seal the deal, however, when all was said and done and it went to the judges scorecards.

To let everyone in the arena and at home know how big an ass he is Silva threw up his arms after the final bell sounded and jumped up on the cage as if he had just participated in a fight rather than a 25 minute dance class. It was just as bad as someone yelling "Anything is Possible!"

To make matters worse Silva in his post-fight remarks didn’t seem to concerned about the perception, said fans sometimes just don’t get it. He’s right, but that fight was just downright painful to watch … maybe that’s what happens when a title challenger gets his big chance with a finish over Drew McFedries.